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LOS ANGELES (AP) - The greater Los Angeles region surpassed Houston and the San Joaquin Valley as the nation's smog capital, in part because of a change in method of ranking, federal officials said.
Air quality in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties exceeded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's smog standard on 84 days this year, the agency said. The EPA considers the totals to be final numbers for 2005 because the smog season runs from May through September.
"It's a tough job cleaning up the ozone at this point because there are not a lot of easy emissions to target," said Joe Cassmassi, planning and rules manager for the South Coast Air Quality Management District, the region's main smog-fighting agency. Ozone is one of the components of smog.
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